Killing of Prison Guard Is Analyzed

The fatal stabbing of an officer by an inmate at the Chino men’s prison might have been prevented if guards had not routinely violated security protocols and if managers had properly housed the alleged assailant in a cell for violent convicts, an investigative report concluded Wednesday.

In response to the findings, state corrections officials placed Warden Lori DiCarlo and two chief deputies on paid administrative leave and launched a widespread audit of prison operations.

The report “confirms my worst fears,” Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Q. Hickman said. The conclusions suggest that “the most basic correctional practices” were not being followed at the California Institution for Men in Chino, allowing “a terrible tragedy” to occur, he said.

Though focusing on the risky security lapses, the report by state Inspector General Matt Cate also faulted prison managers for failing to distribute protective vests to officers. At the time of the killing, 362 of the stab-proof vests -- including one fitted for the victim -- were sitting in a prison warehouse.

In addition, investigators found that lax control of tools in the prison, combined with the failure of staff to search cells, allowed inmates to obtain and conceal weapons such as the knife used in the slaying. After the Jan. 10 fatal stabbing of Officer Manuel Gonzalez, a search of the housing unit where he worked turned up 35 inmate-made weapons.

“No one can say whether any of these problems cost Officer Gonzalez his life,” Cate said in his 86-page report. “But certainly they need to be remedied before any other officer faces similar peril.”

The slaying of Gonzalez, a 16-year veteran of the state Department of Corrections, was the first killing of a prison officer on duty in 20 years. Inmate Jon Christopher Blaylock, 35, has been charged in the case by the San Bernardino County district attorney, who plans to seek the death penalty.

The Office of the Inspector General is an independent state agency responsible for oversight of the California correctional system.

Wednesday’s report follows a seven-week investigation into the killing. Responding to the findings, corrections officials said that they were deeply troubled by the security lapses and that a team of auditors would begin an extensive review of operations next week.

Legislators who monitor the prison system, meanwhile, said the report painted a disturbing portrait of what went on behind the walls of the Chino prison.

“Heads should roll,” said Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of an oversight committee on corrections. “Finding after finding in this report points to a culture of negligence and failure.”

Cate said the stabbing took place amid a “perfect storm scenario” in which officers, performing a difficult job in tricky circumstances, routinely violated security protocols.

Specifically, guards in Sycamore Hall, including Gonzalez, had a habit of releasing “influential” inmates from their cells into the open-tier area in the hope they could quiet racial tensions in the unit -- tensions heightened after a December riot.

On the day he was stabbed, for example, Gonzalez allowed Blaylock out of his cell because he thought he was a “shot caller” who could calm other black inmates, the report said.

Gonzalez then entered the tier alone to talk with Blaylock -- in violation of security rules -- despite a warning by a fellow officer that morning that such an action was dangerous, the report said.

The prisoner -- who was serving a 75-year term for attempted murder of a peace officer -- then stabbed Gonzalez, a father of six from Whittier, three times in the chest and abdomen, officials say.

Cate also laid blame on prison supervisors and managers. In particular, he said, Blaylock had been housed in a general population cell even though during previous prison terms he had been considered a maximum-security inmate. That classification, plus his long history of in-prison violence, should have landed Blaylock in a segregation cell, the report said.

The findings are likely to add to the substantial controversy that has surrounded the stabbing.

Soon after the attack, officials acknowledged that the prison had protective vests for about a third of its officers but had not distributed them. Three days after the killing, the vests were provided to 362 guards who patrol the prison’s maximum- and medium-security wings.

Relatives of Gonzalez, along with leaders of his labor union, say the vests could have saved his life. The inspector general’s report said there was “no guarantee” of that, but said the four-month delay in issuing the vests was unwarranted.

Prison managers said that they needed more than 900 vests to equip all officers, and worried that there would be “issues of fairness” if only some guards received the protective equipment, the report said.

The full text of the inspector general’s public report on the review can be viewed and downloaded from the Office of the Inspector General’s website at www.oig.ca.gov.